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Brendan Perlini scores hat trick, Blackhawks rout Coyotes 7-1

The Chicago Blackhawks dominated the Arizona Coyotes on Monday night at the United Center, scoring seven unanswered goals for a 7-1 win.

Brendan Perlini had his first career hat trick and completed it with 3.6 seconds left in the game.

Jonathan Toews scored his 30th goal of the season and added an assist. Patrick Kane scored his 41st goal this season.

How it Happened

The first four minutes were controlled by the Blackhawks. They had lots of possession, but just could not get a high danger look on Coyote netminder Darcy Kuemper.

After a chip in to the offensive zone by the Coyotes, Carl Dahlstrom whiffed on a clearing attempt. Clayton Keller sped towards the bouncing puck and poked it down low. Dahlstrom picked up the puck again, but his ring around the boards to his defensive partner, Connor Murphy, took a bad bounce off the referee right to Christian Dvorak. Dvorak passed it to a wide open Richard Panik in the low slot who put home his own rebound to give the Coyotes a 1-0 lead.

The Blackhawks did not let that bad bounce doom them. After a near miss by Chicago native Christian Fischer, Brent Seabrook wound up with control of the puck in the defensive zone and found a streaking Perlini near the Coyote’s blue line. Perlini split the two Arizona defenseman and buried his fourth goal in his last five games to tie the game at one. It was Perlini’s ninth goal of the season, and seventh with the Blackhawks.

Less than two minutes later, Toews caught a breakout pass by Brandon Saad in stride. Toews used that generated speed to beat Jakob Chychrun wide to the net. Once Toews got around the defender he slid a backhander towards the net, which deflected off Saad to give the Blackhawks a 2-1 lead. It was Saad’s 22nd goal of the season.

Early in the second period, a defensive play by Kane ignited the Blackhawks into a scoring frenzy. Kane raced back to his defensive blue line to steal a puck from an unsuspecting Coyote near the blue line. The takeaway started a dominant offensive zone shift that ended with Perlini scoring his second goal of the game off a slick feed by Dylan Strome in the high slot.

During a fourth line shift, Dahlstrom held in a clearing attempt and threw the puck towards the net. The shot ricocheted off of Marcus Kruger to David Kampf. Instead of shooting as Kuemper slid across the crease, Kampf gave Chris Kunitz an easy tap in backdoor for his third goal of the season.

Kunitz’s goal forced Kuemper out of the game. Calvin Pickard came in relief.

Shortly after, the Blackhawks dumped the puck in towards Oliver Ekman-Larsson. He mishandled the puck and gave it right to Dominik Kahun in front of the net. Kahun dropped it to Kane, Kane one-touched it to Artem Anisimov, then Kane got it right back for a highlight reel goal. It was Kane’s 41st goal of the season and it put Chicago up 5-1 midway through the second period.

With six minutes to go in the second period, Toews was rewarded a penalty shot after getting hacked on a breakaway. The Captain snapped it five hole for his 30th goal of the season, which is the first time he has hit the 30-goal plateau since the 2010-2011 season.

Near the start of the third period Brendan Perlini had a glorious chance to get a hat trick, but the puck seemed to stick to the goal line.

Down the stretch, the Blackhawks locked it down in their defensive zone and Crawford made a couple of quality saves. Chicago only gave up four high danger chances to Arizona the entire game.

With four seconds left in the game, DeBrincat kicked a bouncing puck to his stick and got it over to Perlini right outside the crease. Perlini smacked it in for his first career hat trick.

What a game. That was fun!

Three Stars

1. Brendan Perlini (CHI) – First career hat trick, 8 SOG, 15:31 TOI

2. Jonathan Toews (CHI) – One goal, one assist, 5 SOG, 18:27 TOI

3. Alex DeBrincat (CHI) – Two assists, two takeaways, 66.7 Corsi-For rating.

What’s Next?

The Blackhawks face the Toronto Maple Leafs at 6 p.m Wednesday at Scotiabank Arena.

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